‘Boondock Saints’ director rebukes bad rep with crappy sequel

I’m always worried when someone talks “sequel” with a truly great film. Like The Wachowski Brothers’ “The Matrix.” As a standalone film, it was elegant and visually impacting. The subsequent “Reloaded” and “Revolutions” acted as a sort of cinder blocks tied to the legs of Neo and Morpheus, drowning the poetic goodness that was the first film.

Director Troy Duffy wants you to think he’s misunderstood. He broke into the Hollywood scene with a loud and boisterous voice that even got Harvey Weinstein’s attention at Miramax. “Boondock Saints” was an underground smash hit and it seemed that Duffy could do no wrong.

Many fans started to hear rumors after the first film was complete; rumors that Duffy was an arrogant, impetuous braggart who not only bit the hand that fed him (Weinstein/Miramax), but that he bit all those little people around him too. His exploits were chronicled in the documentary, “Overnight,” which looked at the controversies which bloomed for Duffy during the making of his debut film. The documentary showed Duffy as a prima donna who constantly abused his position with his crew and with the studio. Duffy has since spoken out about the film’s complete inaccuracy of the making of the original film. And now, Duffy offers his fans a return to the goodness of the original via the sequel, “Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day,” available now on BD.

The film picks up with Conner (Sean Patrick Flanery), Murphy (Norman Reedus) and their father, Noah “Il Duce” (Billy Connolly) living in solitude in Ireland. But after a Catholic priest is murdered and made to look like The Saints killed him, the brothers get cleaned up, grab their gear and return to America.

Back in Boston, the son of late mafioso Joe Yakavetta, Concezio Yakavetta (Judd Nelson) has orchestrated the murder of the Boston priest in order to flush the Saints out of hiding. Upon their arrival in Boston, a Mexican underground fighter Romeo (Clifton Collins Jr.) recognizes them and asks to join their team. And new federal investigator, Special Agent Eunice Bloom (Julie Benz), protege to Special Agent Paul Smecker (Willem Dafoe), is now assigned to the case. She knows the Saints aren’t responsible for the priest’s murder. The Saints later find out that the real killer was sent by a mysterious man named “The Roman” (Peter Fonda) … Okay, that’s it. Can’t go on.

This movie spends half its time trying to be the first movie and the rest of the time trying to be the first movie. There’s a ton of slow motion, gunfight scenes with the camera on a dolly track spinning around Flanery and Reedus. Billy Connolly’s role is underused and for the life of me I can’t figure out how they landed Peter Fonda. The man’s got two Golden Globes for Pete’s sake. There’s a bunch of montage scenes and lots of flashbacks to Rocco (David Della Rocco). Just a jumble of stuff that Duffy slapped together and called a movie. Oh, and lets talk about the actors.

First off, what in the Hell did Sean Patrick Flanery do to his face? Holy crap. He looks like an aging boxer who got his face pummeled for too long. I guess with his “Boondock” residuals, he could only afford the bargain basement plastic surgery. His forehead shows no signs of wrinkles, even when he’s making his usual expressive faces. His brow line resembles one of the Geiko cavemen.

Billy Connolly is so happy that someone has taken such an interest in his career that he’s almost up in Duffy’s lap. It’s great to see the other supporting characters from the first film, but, like all the characters in this film, they don’t quite do the job; with the exception of Bob Marley, who plays Detective Greenly. He was right on. Duffy wrote Julie Benz’s character to be a sort of doppelganger of Dafoe’s character from the first film, so you see Benz try to duplicate some of Dafoe’s mannerisms and gimmicks from the first film but with disastrous results.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Duffy spends the entire movie rehashing all the little gimmicks that made the first film so memorable. Only thing is that this time around they are heavily over used. HEAVILY. Here’s how I equate this film with its predecessor: take something you love (a hamburger, a CD, your favorite T-shirt) and shove it through a meat grinder, sprinkling other things you love and then see if any of that stuff you shoved in there is still good or even recognizable. That’s what this film is.

EXTRAS

Well, there’s a ton of stuff on this disc, but sadly, it’s all about how great Troy Duffy is and how much he loves his fans. Still, let’s examine the contents:

• Commentary track with writer/director Troy Duffy, actors Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus and Billy Connolly: Just what you’d come to expect from a commentary track with these guys in it. They hardly stick to talking about the movie and tend to talk about everything else. No real insight into the creation of the film. This is not to say that commentary tracks where the actors and director are goofing around can’t be fun. Unfortunately, this is not one of those tracks.

• Commentary track with Duffy and Willem Dafoe: Dafoe doesn’t come in until about the middle of the track, but this is the one to listen to. Duffy goes into the plot, talks about sequels and thanks fans of the film. Dafoe jumps in from time to time. Good track.

• Unprecedented Access – Behind the Scenes: This has a TON of great footage from the making of the film, lots of interviews and even focuses on a few scenes. Cast and crew participate.

• Billy Connolly and Troy Duffy: Connolly and Duffy attempt to break their own arms patting themselves and each other on the back for making two Boondock movies. I love Billy Connolly, but we need to get him employed by someone other than Troy Duffy.

• The Cast Confesses – Secrets from the Set: This bonus looks at the creation of part 2, the new characters and the new tattoos. Really? Oh, they also have some cast bonding footage and interviews. Ugh. Really?

• Inside the Vault – the Weapons: Armorer Charles Taylor talks about arming the cast in the two films.

• Boondock Saints at Comic-Con: The principal cast drops into Comic-Con for a Q-and-A session with a bunch of fans. Keep an eye on Duffy as his actors go crazy, especially Sean Patrick Flanery who has some strange fascination with the off camera Jumbotron.

I wanna tell all Boondock Saints fans “April FOOLS!!!” and we all have a good laugh about this review, but no. No such thing will happen. Why? Because Troy Duffy does one thing well, flap his gums. He made this film for the fans, he says. Well, he just spit in our collective faces. What a tragedy.

The sequel curse has hit “Boondock Saints 2.” If there’s a third film planned, maybe this is just a hiccup. Still, do yourself a favor. If you want to buy this film, go get the SD version. Don’t waste your money on a bland transfer of a crappy film.